“If he really loves you, he’ll wait until you’re ready.”
“He really loves me,” she said with a smile. “He really does. I really love him. I just…”
“I know.”
She looked at the table. “I feel kind of alone, sometimes. Mia’s got kids. Darcy’s got kids. Joni is having a kid. Allison has one. You’re pregnant. And me…I have a dog. I sound like I’m lost. I sound like I don’t know what I want, but I do. I just have this wonderful man who wants something I’m not ready to give.”
“Did you want kids? I mean, was that something you ever saw yourself doing before you were part of the club?”
“I guess. Maybe? In the way distant future? But now itisthe future. It’s here, right now, this moment. My ovaries are like, shit or get off the pot, but my work ethic and ego are likeNo! Devote more time to the clinic you love!”
I sniggered. “You already devote a lot of time to the clinic. How can you do more?”
“There’s always more,” she said. “Always.”
The server returned with the glasses of water, along with our appetizers. She set them down in the center of the table and then disappeared.
“What is it about the Blue Angels men?” I asked, reaching for a steaming piece of cornbread. “Slash mentioned a wedding earlier. But, like, trying to be sneaky to feel out what kind of wedding I want. I mean, he hasn’t even proposed and he’s fishing around about a wedding?”
“If he proposed, what would you say?” she asked in amusement.
“She’d say yes,” Slash said as he approached the table.
“Do you have X-ray hearing?” I demanded.
“It’s X-ray vision, babe. Hearing would be something different entirely,” Slash said in amusement as he slid into the booth next to me.
Boxer plopped down next to Linden and draped an arm around her shoulders. “You told Brooklyn what happened between us?”
“Yes,” Linden said. “I needed another opinion.”
“Did she convince you to set a wedding date?” he asked lightly.
Linden sighed in exasperation. “No.”
“So, we’re still at a standoff?
“Yup,” she said.
“Are you mad enough to make me sleep on the couch?” he asked.
“I’m not mad,” she protested. “I just need more time. Can we please talk about something else? Anything?”
Boxer reached for a hush puppy. “Monk wants a brother. He told me.”
“You’re impossible,” Linden said to him, but she laughed as she said it.
“You mean impossibly charming,” he stated.
* * *
“You’re quiet,” Slash said, reaching over and setting his hand on my thigh.
I was staring out the window as Slash drove us home, lulled by good food and spending time with friends who were rapidly becoming some of my favorite people to be around.
“Just thinking.”
“About?”